


I, You, He

by FakePlastikTrees



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:22:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22916911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FakePlastikTrees/pseuds/FakePlastikTrees
Summary: Beth is a bisexual mess doing her usually messy shit.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rhea, Beth Boland/Rio
Comments: 10
Kudos: 66





	I, You, He

**Author's Note:**

> lol i hate this and I'm sorry

In another world, in another life, Beth would have married Ruby.

It’s a running joke between them that if they weren’t so obnoxiously straight, they  _ would _ be in love and happily married with 8 kids. Annie even went through a phase where she referred to Beth as Ruby’s wife. Right up until Ruby began to worry Stan was starting to believe they were actually a little bit in love and she had to put a stop to it. 

The thing is though, Beth isn’t so sure she is 100% straight. Of course she’s never said this out loud because it’s been mostly fantasizing and thinking about it, and it’s never really turned into anything more than that, but Beth can’t deny there’s a little something there. 

Once, a little drunk during  _ Housewives of Beverly Hills _ , or  _ Housewives of NYC _ , or some other group of rich housewives night, there was a trailer for an Angelina Jolie movie, and without thinking, Beth had reached over and snatched the remote out of Annie’s hand before she could skip it.

“You like commercials now?” 

“I like Angelina Jolie,” Beth had replied, her voice low enough to give away that this had nothing to do with Angelina Jolie’s talents at that moment, but rather her spectacularly attractive features, and overall rebellious aura. 

Luckily for Beth, Annie was a few glasses of Chardonnay in herself and hadn’t required much of an explanation.

Instead, she’d replied with, “I feel you. Remember Gia? I’d scoot just a tad down the Kinsey scale for Angelina Jolie, you know what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, you’re not subtle.” 

It hadn’t come up again in recent years, and Beth hadn’t thought about it again, not seriously anyway, not beyond casual glances at strangers in the street, or the occasional flirt-on with the barista at Starbucks. Because everyone flirts with the barista at Starbucks _.  _

Until one night with Rhea that is. 

All it takes is one short moment where she’s laughing so hard that there’s no room for the all-consuming guilt about this whole thing–where they’re both tipsy enough, and Jane and Marcus have fallen asleep halfway through  _ Finding Dory _ , that they happen to kiss.

It’s one not-so-chaste kiss where they sit side by side at the kitchen counter, with maybe just a little bit of tongue, and they’re both blushing when they part, maybe giggling for a second, and then they’re back to talking about something kid-related. 

It’s all Beth can think about for days, and she’s running out of ways to justify duplicating the night, if only for the off chance of another kiss. 

Beth wonders if it’s the loneliness of her current reality, her need to be touched ever since that night in the bar with Rio– _ could it be that Rhea is the closest thing she’s got to him? _ It’s all too much, too complicated, and it’s all wrong without the kissing, adding that to the equation is just-- _ when did she become this person? _ On more than one occasion she’d stayed up tracing her steps, trying to pinpoint the moment the shift happened, but that proved harder to achieve whilst she was still in the midst of it. 

There’s no reason Beth wouldn’t be attracted to Rhea. She is sweet, kind, and a great parent. She’s funny, and when they spend time together, they talk for so long that when they part ways, it feels like they’re being cut off mid sentence. Beth really and truly enjoys their time together. Out of all the outcomes, she least expected that when she first made up her mind about approaching her. 

“You’re quiet.” 

“Hmm?” Beth blinks and rolls her shoulders back before looking over at Rhea, who’s looking at her like she’s caught her doing something. “What? No, I’m not.” 

“Yeah. You are. You’re being weird about the other night. You don’t have to be weird about it. I misread the situation, it’s not a big deal--” 

Beth is shaking her head before Rhea is even done talking and she shifts in her seat so she can better face her. “You didn’t--I mean. I--kissed you too, it wasn’t--”

She’s babbling, saying a lot and saying nothing all at once, and Rhea is smiling, looking at her like she finds her adorable, and damn it, it’s making Beth blush.

Something like a giggle stumbles out of her mouth as she finally says, “It wasn’t just you. Is what I’m trying to say. I just think, maybe it’s inappropriate?”

_ It is absolutely inappropriate.  _

Rhea bites her lip and Beth reminds herself not to blatantly stare while wondering if she’s always been this into lips.

“Because the kids,” Beth gestures out at the playground where Jane and Marcus are playing. “They’re friends, and--it’ll be weird for them.”

“Can’t imagine your husband would be very happy about it either.” 

_ Oh, right. Dean.  _

“Well.”

_ Shut up Beth. _

“We’re sort of...not really together, but you’re right. He wouldn’t like that.”

Rhea nods. “Well, pretend it never happened.” 

And she means that. It’s--disappointing how earnest she sounds and beth hates the way her stomach drops a little at that. 

“Tonight’s pizza night,” Rhea says after a moment of Beth lost in thought. 

“What?” 

Rhea laughs. “Where are you today? I said tonight’s pizza night. Want to bring the kids over for dinner and a movie?”

“Dean’s taking the boys to a birthday party, but I’ll bring the girls. Should be fun.”

And it does turn out to be fun. They eat pizza and play a board game before the kids fall into a food coma in front of the television. 

“Will you stop that? You don’t have to do that.”

Beth looks over her shoulder from where she’s rinsing and placing dishes in Rhea’s dishwasher and sweetly responds, “It’s just a few dishes. You hosted.”

“Exactly why you should not be doing the dishes.”

Rhea walks up behind her, reaching for the soapy sponge before Beth can get to it. 

“I’ll finish up.”

Laughing, Beth grabs at the sponge, but Rhea’s got a good grip and there’s tug each way before they stop, a little too aware of their proximity, and the warm suds where their hands are touching under the faucet. 

Rhea is now pressed against Beth’s shoulder, who turns slowly where she stands so that when they’re face to face, they have but a few centimeters between them, and it’s suddenly degrees warmer.

“Come with me,” whispers Rhea before dropping the sponge in the sink and leading Beth through the kitchen and to the backyard.

Beth’s heart is beating erratically and while she doesn’t want to assume, she can tell what’s coming. Regardless, she’s surprised when once outside, Rhea gently presses her back against the door and kisses her. 

There’s more confidence in this one, and there’s definitely tongue, and a little groping. It lasts longer, too.

It’s not until Rhea nips at Beth’s bottom lip that she’s reminded of just how long it’s been since she’s been kissed or even touched, and then she recalls exactly who it was who kissed and touched her, and then she realizes where she is and who’s kissing her now.

The guilt is telling her she should put a stop to this–they should stop while they’re ahead, but she somehow can’t will her body to stop reacting to the way Rhea kisses her, the way her hand glides smoothly up her side, her thumb grazing the side of her breast.    
  


Fortunately, or unfortunately, the doorbell does the sobering for them and they separate slowly, the kissing settling down to soft pecks Beth dreads pulling away from because it’ll mean they’ll have to face each other, and she’s not sure she can look Rhea in the eye while she’s half thinking about Rio.

“Let me get that,” Rhea says when they do pull away, kissing Beth’s cheek in a heartbreakingly sweet way that makes her feel like absolute garbage. 

She nods and steps aside to give Rhea room to go inside, lingering back a beat to catch her breath, and also strongarm her erratic emotions into some sort of order.

_ Oh, this is wrong. This is so wrong.  _

She isn’t sure how long she’s out there, catching her breath and telling herself she’s got no right to feel emotional in Rhea’s home, but when she comes back inside, it’s just the girls splayed out in front of the TV until Marcus rushes back in, big toothy smile on his face before he settles back into his place between Jane and Emma. 

The front door shuts and Rhea appears soon thereafter. The look on her face is the direct opposite of amusement. 

“Everything okay?” 

She nods and smiles at Beth, telling her this isn’t about them or what they were just doing. 

“It’s just--you know. Family stuff.”

The kids demand a game of Jenga before Beth can further inquire and the night is sealed by Rhea getting the car door so Beth can secure a sleeping Jane and Emma in their seats, followed directly by a hug that lasts longer than usual, and Beth’s lips grazing Rhea’s cheek because she can’t help herself. 

At least she has that cling to during the two Rhea-less weeks that follow. 

**

_ “She ain’t coming.” _

There have been exactly three times in her life where Beth’s felt this extreme level of distress and raw, unadulterated fear in her life before this moment. 

The first time, she was 15 and far too young to care for a child of Annie’s rambunctious energy, or any child for that matter, and she had to assure the ER doctor that Annie had broken her arm playing, and not being horribly abused by their missing parents. 

The second time, she was splayed out in a hospital room and Jane was being tended to by a number of people in scrubs. She’d been purple when they pulled her out, her umbilical cord wrapped around her little neck. Dean was standing in a corner, shell shocked and useless, and Beth had to wait for the longest thirty seconds to finally hear her baby’s cries. 

The third time, it had been Rio with a gun to her head. Annie and Ruby, who by all means felt more like an extension of herself like never before in that moment, were sitting across the table, shaking and crying, and looking at her like they expected her to fix it, but also wanted her to shut the hell up. She feared for her life, but mostly, the thought of them being hurt was what sent that prominent shiver down her spine. 

After that, guns were no less of a threat but just part of the game. Finding herself in Rio’s loft that night had come pretty close to scaring the life out of her, but anger had won over. It’s not until  _ this _ night, with Rio showing up in Rhea’s place, that Beth feels that cold shiver return. 

It’s strange that she can feel both fear and relief at the sight of him. It’s even stranger that despite her abhorrence for him, there’s still an ache, too. It makes her feel nauseated. 

If her life depended on making sense of this attraction/repulsion thing between them, she would die trying. 

She sits there when he leaves her, with the drink he orders for her and a death threat she knows he won’t hesitate to comply with, until the important questions start filtering through her brain. 

_ Does Rhea know Beth knows Rio? Does she know she shot him? Does she know she befriended her as a result of overwhelming guilt? Does she hate her?  _

It’s probably not a good idea, to call her, or even see her, not now that Rio is back, but because she figures she will probably die soon anyway and crossing that line again won’t make her any less dead, she gets in her car, and drives to Rhea’s.

She calls first, because urgency or no, Beth has manners and will not just show up unannounced. That she’s sent directly to voicemail isn’t a problem because it’s the thought that counts sometimes–maybe she drives right past a couple of stop signs, but that doesn’t mean she’s desperate. It’s nerves, is all. 

It’s also ‘nerves’ that inspire Beth to run straight to the backdoor when Rhea doesn’t answer out front. 

“Rhea! Can I--can we please talk?” 

The silence that follows tugs at something, a level of emotion she didn’t expect. It feels like deep rejection, and what’s worse, loss. 

She knocks louder. 

“I got tickets for a screening of  _ Jurassic Park, _ for you and Marcus. I saw they were going fast so I just--bought them for you as a thank you for lending me the money.”

The backdoor swings open then, and Rhea is standing there, looking lovely and furious, and a little sad in her scrubs. 

Beth smiles lamely at her, bouncing a little on her toes when she says, “I knew dinosaurs would do the trick.” 

“What are you doing here, Beth?” 

She doesn’t like this, the edge in Rhea’s voice–the mistrust. 

“From the look on your face, I’m going to assume you already know.” 

“Don’t be cute,” Rhea snaps. 

“I’m sorry.”

“For what, exactly?” She asks, tilting her head in mock concern.

“I don’t know,” Beth quips. “Why don’t you tell me what you know first, and then I can confirm or deny?”

It’s a joke. It’s meant to  _ sound _ like a joke, but Rhea’s truly in no mood and it only makes her shift her weight and brace her hand on her hip expectedly. 

“Chris says you two are colleagues but I get the feeling you’re going to tell me it’s more ‘complicated’ than that.”

_ Chris _ . Hearing his real name will never be a thing Beth is used to. 

“It is,” Beth nods. “Look, I--can I come in? Just for a second. I want to explain, just not out here.” 

Rhea turns on her heel but leaves the door open for Beth to follow. 

Rhea doesn’t invite Beth to sit, or asks her if she wants something to drink like she usually does. She just stands at the kitchen counter, arms crossed over her chest. Beth swears the door has never shut so loudly before. 

“So, I should--start by saying that--”

“What were you doing hanging around the playground? Were you just scoping out the ex? Seeing if there was a threat or not?”

“What? No! It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like?” 

“Look. Ri-- _ Christopher _ and I are...sort of colleagues, it’s true. And when I heard he was--gone, I just wanted to make sure you and Marcus were okay. That you were taken care of. I didn’t expect to, you know--” 

She gestures between them.

“Bullshit.”

“What?” 

“You’re lying,” Rhea states, pointedly glaring. “Not about everything, but you’re lying about something, and if you’re not going to tell me the truth, then you should go.” 

“I can tell you he was gone because of me,” Beth quickly replies. “Okay?” 

“Okay. And?” 

“And I didn’t expect to like you so much.” 

“Were you two fucking?” 

Beth doesn’t reply to that, but the look in her eyes must say enough because Rhea nods and laughs bitterly.

“Jesus Christ, Beth.” 

“I know.” 

“This is fucked up!” 

“I know!” 

“Were you going to tell me you and my ex were fucking before or after you fucked me?” 

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead to be completely honest with you. I didn’t see this coming at all, but--here we are.” 

“Are you still fucking him?”

“No,” Beth says, and she doesn’t mean to laugh, but a chuckle comes out anyway. “Definitely not.”

There’s a loaded silence before Beth continues, taking a short step forward, “Look, I know I have no excuse. Okay? And whatever you want to think of me, you’re probably right. I know I’m a terrible person, okay? Just please, know that I never meant any harm at all. I just--didn’t expect to get close to you, and I’m truly sorry about this mess. I am--you’re great, and I’m a terrible human being.”

Rhea takes three strides forward and, cradling Beth’s cheek, she kisses her, tenderly but firmly, in a way that feels like a goodbye of sorts, so beth leans into it, missing the closeness the moment it’s over. 

“You’re not a bad person,” Rhea tells her, and as she steps back, adds, “But you are an idiot.” 

And Beth can’t argue with that. 

“Fair enough.” 

“I’m not getting involved in whatever there is between you and Christopher. We have a kid together and that’s more drama than I can handle already. I think we should not talk for a while.” 

And, right. This is what adults do; take a step back when things get too messy. 

“Call me when you figure it out. Right now,I have to get ready for work. Some of us work actual jobs for a living.” 

Beth smiles despite the stinging comment. She deserves that after all. “I really am sorry.”

There’s a pause and a passing sadness in Rhea’s eyes before she replies, “Me too.” 

Beth cries that night.

She cries in the tub and then proceeds to get nice and drunk. She thinks she sees Rio parked outside her house when she takes out the trash, but decides that if he was going to shoot her he wouldn’t do it at home, so she pushes him out of her mind.

Tomorrow she will get back to thinking about him, and worrying about him, and hating herself for the way her body reacts to him. Tonight she will think about Rhea, and about how they laugh together, and about what a great kisser she is, except she marinates in that, and plenty of alcohol, for about an hour before she hops in a Lyft that takes her to the dentist office where Rhea works. Her confidence however, takes her as far as the hospital. After texting to announce her arrival, while she’s standing in her pajamas, Beth begins to immensely regret her decision.

“Oh my god,” she mutters to herself where she waits near the back door. “Jesus, Beth. You’re not John Cusack.”

“Why John Cusack?” 

Beth whips around to find Rhea blue scrubs, and a barely amused look on her face.

“You know how in  _ Say Anything _ he like, shows up with the boombox after she breaks up with him?

“Is that where that’s from? I’ve never seen it.”

“Maybe when we’re talking again, we can watch it together.” 

“We have to stop talking in order to start talking again.”

“Right.” 

There are sirens somewhere nearby. When the sound fades, Beth decides she’s embarrassed herself enough for the night. 

“I’m going to go. This sounded like a good idea two drinks ago. I was just-- thinking about you, but anyway, I’m gonna go. I’m sorry.” 

Before she can slip away, Beth hears her name and when she turns back around, Rhea is standing a little closer. 

“Are you here because of him? You trying to get a rise out of him or something?”

“No.”

There’s silence, and then Rhea says, “My kid really likes your kid.”

“Ditto.”

“And I’m not about to take his friend away, so i hope Jane keeps coming around.”

Beth smiles.

“She will.” 

“That being said, this can’t happen in front of the kids. I don’t even know what I want  _ this _ to be, but it needs to stay on the quiet side for now at least.”

“This...you and me?”

Rhea gives her a look and Beth laughs. 

“Okay. I agree.” 

“Good.” 

Rhea then rolls her eyes and shakes her head, a smile finally appearing as she reaches for the door. 

“Next time, bring flowers,” she says. “I like lillies.” 

“Noted.”

Something sweet passes between them before Rhea pulls the door open.

“I should go.” 

“Yeah, me too.”

“When is that  _ Jurassic Park _ screening?” 

“Two months from now. Why?” 

“Maybe get two more tickets. For you and Jane. We can get dinner.”

Beth’s smile broadens and she nods once. “Okay.” 

“Okay. Stay out of trouble.”

Beth waits until Rhea’s gone inside to call a Lyft, but her joy is short-lived when she sees a missed call from a strange, but oh so familiar number, and right. She’d forgotten for a second how she ended up here in the first place. She can only hope she makes it to her date two months from now, and a moment later decides she’s going to make it to her date–if she plays her cards right, on Rio’s good graces too.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> look. Ione Skye is in the show now and I'm the only one having a gay panic about it. I had to work Say Anything in there somehow.


End file.
